social

What can be accomplished with a Tweet? That’s what Twitter would like to know, and their new ‘#PoweredByTweets’ challenge in the UK is hopefully going to answer that question for them. The actual challenge is two-fold: either create something beautiful with Twitter/Tweets, or solve a problem using Twitter. Prizes will be awarded, with a judging panel handing out unnamed packages to the top three winners in each category. Not only a contest, those with the best ideas will have their ideas brought to life by Pixie Labs.

Instagram is trying to branch out from its core service as a photo-centric social network. In December, Instagram brought forth several new filters for users. Now, they’re rolling out two new tools: Color and Fade. Though Instagram started the mobile photography snowball, others have sniped a bit of the energy from them, leaving Instagram to play catch-up. Think of these new tools as a continuation of that effort to catch up to the likes of VSCO Cam or Enlight. Like the rest of Instagram’s tools, Color and Fade are really simple to use.

If a child is under 13, they aren’t allowed an official place on Facebook. That’s meant to protect them from less than savory characters, but can prove difficult for parents who want to upload pics and tag their kids. A Facebook study showed up to 65% of parents simply tag their partners when uploading a pic of their child, which in turn allows a wider audience of friends to view the pics. With that in mind, Facebook created ‘Scrapbook’, which allows parents to track photos of kids not yet on Facebook.

Vine’s looping videos are a mix of hilarious and silly. The service, like most social entities, is a healthy blend of all kinds of interesting stuff. With visual media, we tend to gravitate toward the more accurate representation of what is going on, and that’s typically HD. Starting today, Vine will become available in 720p for your ‘prosumer’ shots. Ahead of the update, Vine videos had a maximum definition of 420p, which is like standard TV. Viewing in 720p is available for all; full HD uploads, not so much.

A long time ago, when MTV was actually relevant for music, there was a deligthful video called ‘video killed the radio star’ playing almost constantly; as catchy as it was prophetic. Just as Charlie Chaplin was exposed by ‘talkies’, so were radio 'stars' who couldn’t duplicate their musical efforts on the exciting new visual format that was MTV. With Periscope, Twitter is morphing their own platform into something more, something different, something refreshing. Twitter now bridges a gap between immediate and contextual, live and lived-in. It also makes the global technology gap more apparent.

With ride-sharing services, two champions have emerged in Uber and Lyft. One gets a lion’s share of the attention, while the other seems content to ride it out under the radar. Uber’s negative press comes courtesy of bad actors using their platform, something Lyft has mostly been able to avoid. Whether it’s a matter of uneven scaling between the two or Lyft’s good fortune, we don’t know. In launching Lyft Profiles, it’s clear Lyft wants to avoid the bad mojo. They want to be your friendly ride-share option.

You might have heard news that Facebook is changing up their rules a bit, releasing an update to their ‘Community Standards’ guidelines. Those rules are in place to safeguard the Facebook community at-large against content that is widely regarded as offensive or distasteful. But you’re not one of those people, right? We hope not, but some algorithm might not be able to pick up on your humor or purpose. Rather than leave things to chance, let’s clarify what can and can’t be posted to Facebook.

Anyone who has a Facebook account and more than a few friends has undoubtedly seen content posted to the social network that they probably don't care to see. Facebook has recently updated its community standards in an attempt to highlight what sort of content is allowed on the network and the sort of content that isn’t.

Social media can be a great tool for modern businesses. We've seen a growing number of businesses use Facebook to promote their brands. Some low-budget businesses forgo a website altogether and only create a Facebook page instead. These businesses should prepare for a drop in Page likes because Facebook for Business just announced a new change in the way their Page likes are counted. To start, they are expunging business Page likes from deactivated accounts. Now, any likes from memorialized accounts or accounts that were voluntarily closed will no longer show up on a Page's like count.

In a recent chat with Forbes, Google’s Sundar Pichai turned a few heads by noting Google+ would be considered as parts — not the sum of those parts. Rather than a social network, Plus would be a stream. And Photos. And Communications. Adding a bit of fuel to the fire was the subsequent dismissal/resignation of Dave Besbris as the head of Google+. Besbris took over for Vic Gundotra, who spearheaded Plus from inception. With a new boss in Bradley Horowitz, the circumstance around Plus might sound confusing. That’s because they kind of are.